1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to computers, and more particularly to a method, system, and computer program product for rapid defragmentation of storage volumes in a computing environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
The majority of businesses in the world today use computers and computer systems to store and manage information. In the context of administering computer systems, defragmentation refers to a process that reduces the amount of fragmentation in file systems. Defragmentation reduces this fragmentation by physically reorganizing the contents of a storage device to store the pieces of each file in a contiguous manner. Defragmentation also attempts to create larger regions of free space using compaction to impede the return of fragmentation.
Fragmentation occurs when the computer system cannot or will not allocate enough contiguous space to store a complete file as a unit. Instead, the computer system fragments the file, placing portions of the file in spaces between additional files. Larger files and greater numbers of these files contribute to fragmentation and consequent performance loss. Defragmentation attempts to alleviate these problems.